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All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.

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"It is symbolic, a point to pause and think about where we have been and where we are going," said Professor Ralph Keeling, who oversees the measurements on a Hawaian volcano, which were begun by his father in 1958. "It's like turning 50: it's a wake up to what has been building up in front of us all along."

Chris, this type of thing happens occasionally on large lakes in northern climes. I can recall several instances over the past few decades on Lake Erie, Lake St. Claire and Lake Huron here in North America. A wind-driven occurence. Extreme, yes. Rare, also.

It's not the result of a wave carrying the ice that far up the beach. It's an "ice push". Get a long lake, a strong wind, and a lot of loose, moving ice, and there is a lot of momentum behind it. Ice gets pushed up on shore, and pushed further by more ice getting pushed ashore, and so on. It's like trying to stop an oil tanker.

Although such ice pushes are uncommon, I have been on many lakes in the Northwest Territories where the rocky beaches (typically made of rocks 10-20cm in diameter) have many ridges in the beach itself caused by such ice pushes. The ridges are easily several metres above normal water level, and there will be several of them at different heights, from different ice push events of varying strength.

Is SkS planning on doing an article about his NYTimes article? It is found under their series examining the "debate" (their words) surrounding climate change. I would like to see more details about the specific claims, as well as those making them.

Seahuck - Not a good piece by Gillis. Relatively easy adaptation to climate change is simply a fantasy. Last time I checked, ocean acidification is still happening, and coral reefs the world over are in dramatic decline. Once the reefs and productive fisheries collapse (which they are on course to), I don't expect adaptation will be an apt description of what follows.

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